John Joyal of Somersworth, a welding instructor at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, shakes hands with U.S. Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, as Ken Lemont of Kittery, looks on at the shipyard. King and U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, toured the yard Thursday to discuss sequestration.

Washington budget situation is 'crazy,' says King

By Deborah McDermott

dmcdermott@seacoastonline.com

February 21, 2013 - 5:28 PM

KITTERY, Maine — It’s “fairly unusual” for two senators to be in the same place at the same time, “but it underlines the importance both of us feel this facility is to the future of this state but also underlines how crazy we think the budget situation is in Washington.”

With those words, Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, joined Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard Thursday afternoon to discuss their concerns about upcoming automatic budget cuts and the inability of Congress to address them.

The senators said they are committed to working together to find a path out of so-called sequestration, what Collins called “those mindless, across the board cuts” scheduled to go into effect March 1. They are also working to ensure a defense budget is passed through the Senate this year. The Defense Department has been operating without a budget for four years.

“Both have a very adverse impact on the shipyard,” Collins said.

Starting in March and through the end of the fiscal year in Sept. 30, shipyard workers would be furloughed for a total of 22 days — equivalent to about one month of work — under sequestration.

Collins said 86 percent of the civilian work force doesn’t work in Washington, but are “people like the firefighters, the pipe fitters, the welders, the nuclear engineers. They are doing work that is absolutely essential for our national security.

“The implications are horrendous for all of the families involved and for the communities in which they live, but it is also crazy for the readiness of the fleet.”

King agreed, calling it “ironic that the cuts will cost taxpayers money in the long run.” Putting off maintenance doesn’t mean the maintenance doesn’t have to occur, “so it’s kind of like deficit spending. You’re just pushing it off.”

He said the impasse in Washington can be overcome. “It’s hard, but it’s not impossible,” he said. “It’s a problem we created and we ought to be able to solve it.”

King said he and Sen. Collins “are doing everything we can as a team to try to move these things forward.”

King, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the committee “practically unanimously” passed a defense appropriations budget recently, which now heads to the Senate floor. He said the budget is important so that shipyard workers “can get on with their lives and this facility can plan its future successfully.”

While senators and congressmen are home this week during a congressional recess, King said “I hope they’re hearing what we’re hearing, which is, ‘Get on with it. These are serious problems. Get ’em resolved.’ We are both hoping that people return to Washington this weekend with the same resolve that we have to try to get this thing done.”